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Uses of Social Media Question 1: How is the NGO challenge different than corporate uses of social media?

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Best Practices <ul><li>Using Social Media as a tool for fundraising </li></ul><ul><li>Add a donate button or fundraising widget to social media tools </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Example: Fundraising through blogs - http://maratriangle.wildlifedirect.org/ </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Empower people to raise funds on your behalf </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Example: Using Facebook Causes - http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2318966938 </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Go beyond purely financial assistance by connecting people directly with beneficiaries who need their expertise or services, or facilitating sharing of experiences: http://www.nabuur.com/ </li></ul><ul><li>Building a strong community for your cause </li></ul><ul><li>Focus your site on a particular conversation, rather than a general mandate </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Example: Being focused on a goal/cause - http://www.nothingbutnets.org/ </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Shifting from message delivery to conversation and sharing </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Example: Setting up a facebook group - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4884987604 </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Upload photos and keep members updated on events </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Facilitate conversation through comments </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><li>Use social networking to build awareness and support </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Example: Using MySpace to build support for its cause - http://www.myspace.com/oxfam </li></ul></ul>Question 2: What are some of the best/worst practices of social media?

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Best Practices <ul><li>Using Social Media for Advocacy </li></ul><ul><li>The power of social media allows NGOs to make use of networks to inform people, and to influence public policy and resource allocation outcomes - Social media can be part of an integrated advocacy and media strategy </li></ul><ul><li>Regular updates should be provided to supporters on what they can do to advocate your cause </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Example: Using a blog to address issues and suggest actions - http://www.genocideintervention.net/advocate/actionalerts/ </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Create a &quot;Download Center&quot; where volunteers and supporters can obtain all the information to contribute to advocating your cause. Increase interactivity by including embeddable videos, banners and widgets. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Example: A section where supporters can link easily to various social media sites - http://www.wfp.org/1billion </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Monitoring Social Media Space </li></ul><ul><li>Monitoring social media spaces is vital for NGOs because it is important to know what conversations might transpire regarding their cause, reputation, location or constituents </li></ul><ul><li>Monitoring the social media space constantly also allows NGOs to stay current with how other NGOs are using social media and learn from their experiences </li></ul><ul><li>Monitoring functions can be carried out by tracking the “nptech” tag on del.ici,ous. </li></ul>Question 2: What are some of the best/worst practices of social media? * study by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research (June 2009)

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Worst Practices <ul><li>Outdated Information </li></ul><ul><li>Information communicated will not be relevant if content in social media channels are not updated frequently </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Example: past dated forums - http://itrc.hkcss.org.hk/ngo2.0/intro.html </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Special effort should be taken to ensure that content is updated on a regular basis </li></ul><ul><li>Insufficient Contact Information </li></ul><ul><li>Profiles and organisational information should be thorough and consistent across the various social media tools used </li></ul><ul><li>Insufficient or inaccurate information will have a negative impact on an NGO’s credibility, which might potentially lead to unsuccessful campaigns and lack of member confidence </li></ul><ul><li>Unprofessional Website Design </li></ul><ul><li>An unprofessional website design might make it unnecessarily difficult for supporters or advocates to share your site with the people in their social networks </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Examples: No links to share site - http://www.ngo20.com/ </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>: No links to blog through website - http://www.greenworldindia.org/ </li></ul></ul></ul></ul><ul><li>Professional web designers should be consulted, if not hired, to ensure that corporate websites are credible and user-friendly </li></ul><ul><li>Logo and tag line should fit in with the mission of the NGO in order to communicate a distinct identity to potential members and donors </li></ul>Question 2: What are some of the best/worst practices of social media?

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Singapore: How Social Media Helps <ul><li>ECO Singapore – Most involved in Social Media amongst Singaporean NGOs </li></ul><ul><li>http://www.eco-singapore.org/ </li></ul><ul><li>Twitter </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Sole NGO in Singapore to be active in twitter </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Utilized to spread awareness of environmental issues </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Facebook </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Has reached out to almost 2,000 people till date </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Used to publicize news, events and share reports related to climate change such as the COP15 report </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Youtube </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Uploaded videos of related environmental causes such as the COP15 conference and worldwide environmental news </li></ul></ul>Question 3: Are there case studies, especially in Singapore but also around Asia, of successful NGO uses of social media?

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Singapore: How Social Media Helps <ul><li>Bone Marrow Donor Programme – Very active in Facebook </li></ul><ul><li>http://www.bmdp.org/index.php </li></ul><ul><li>Web 2.0 Homepage </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Supports contributions in various forms, making donor sign-ups quick and accessible </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Makes use of widgets such as ammado for people to easily donate funds </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Facebook </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Used to share details of events and photos </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Raising awareness through various channels such as Interview at Prime Time Morning at Channel News Asia </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Sharing news related to Bone Morrow related diseases, such as the current development of a Leukemia vaccine </li></ul></ul>Question 3: Are there case studies, especially in Singapore but also around Asia, of successful NGO uses of social media?

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India: Pratham Books by Pratham <ul><li>Key Points for Success </li></ul><ul><li>Intricate integration of different social media platforms to reach out to the community </li></ul><ul><li>Constant updates on all social media platforms </li></ul><ul><ul><li>FriendFeed page averages 15 posts a day </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Following 2,116 people on Twitter, 2,248 followers </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>At least 2 blog posts a day </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>32 documents on Scribd, 9,494 subscribers and 126,430 reads. </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Website is easy to navigate. Background, goals and mission of Pratham and Pratham Books are clearly stated and publicized through Web tools. </li></ul>Question 3: Are there case studies, especially in Singapore but also around Asia, of successful NGO uses of social media?

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Suggested Measures of Social Media Success for NGOs <ul><li>Number of Online Community members </li></ul><ul><li>An NGO’s strength lies in its ability to amass members together to push a cause forward. Awareness alone is not enough, but when people openly support a cause, they give an indication that they are willing to act upon that awareness, which is what truly matters to an NGO. With more members, the NGO stands a better chance of further increasing its strength through word-of-mouth, making it easier to attract the attention of the mass media. </li></ul><ul><li>Example: The ironic case of Greenpeace using Facebook to garner new members in support of their protest against Facebook’s plans for a coal-powered data center in Oregon. Greenpeace cites the parallel of how Facebook was made to change its privacy policies due to protests from a large number of its users in the past to further their cause. </li></ul>Question 4: How might success be measured in the NGO context?

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Suggested Measures of Social Media Success for NGOs <ul><li>Mobilization Time for Activities </li></ul><ul><li>NGOs often involve themselves in activities which require member participation. E.g. boycotts, protests, petitions. </li></ul><ul><li>One possible way to measure social media success would be to compare mobilization times for these activities before and after social media has been implemented. A shortfall of this measure is that it can only be used on hindsight after a preliminary benchmark has been established. </li></ul><ul><li>Number of New Ideas from Social Media Communities </li></ul><ul><li>Social media tools give NGOs access to a pool of fresh ideas from those they are connected to. By posing questions through channels such as blogs and fanpages, NGOs are able to solicit innovative solutions to their problems from a wide audience. </li></ul><ul><li>The number of ideas generated or implemented from these social media channels can be used as a measure of social media success for NGOs </li></ul>Question 4: How might success be measured in the NGO context?

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Suggested Measures of Social Media Success for NGOs <ul><li>Donation Amounts and Donor Retention </li></ul><ul><li>Mal Warwick, in his presentation about fund raising for non-profit organisations stated that donors tend to desire recognition, appreciation for their contributions and information that inspires their trust. NGOs face severe donor attrition if they do not provide donors with these reciprocations. </li></ul><ul><li>Social media provides NGOs with communication tools that engage donors on a more personal level and could therefore be very useful in retaining donors. By overlaying trendlines of social media activity with donation amounts and donor attrition trendlines, it might be possible to draw a connection between the two in order to prove the success of social media in an NGO. </li></ul>Question 4: How might success be measured in the NGO context?

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Conclusion Social Media can not only be applied to businesses, it can also be applied to NGOs which have completely different objectives from corporations. Some fare better than others depending on the context of usage. It is also important to note that although there are examples of NGOs in Asia which have utilized Social Media to their advantage, there are also some who have failed to exercise the proper practices and thus have not been able to reap the benefits